My life began the night that Senya entered it. I jumped on a roller coaster that would take me through highs and lows like I could never have imagined.
Senya was the coolest kid alive. He was the Crown Prince, and I was his conduit. He would use my eyes to see and my voice to speak. If he wanted something, I would gladly ask for it, and if he didn't like something, I would happily scorn it. He used me like he had used that black mutt, which had followed him around the streets of Old Mishnah, and I did so without qualm.
I moved into his suite, and we shared a bedroom, sleeping across from each other every night. We were always together, and though we may have gotten on Taner's nerves, I came to love every minute of it. But I wouldn't have, for a moment, traded places with Senya. I was always the luckier of the two of us. After all, I had a mother and father who loved me, and I lived in the Palace by choice. I could go home when I wanted. I wore great clothes, ate incredible food, was privately tutored and lived in the nicest place on Rehnor, and nothing was expected of me other than to be Senya's friend.
“Your job, Berkie,” Taner would say. “Is to make Senya happy.”
Senya was never happy though. On our first night together, l lay in my bunk trembling as I listened to the thunder raging overhead. I'm not sure what terrified me more, the lightning that periodically lit up our room, Prince Akan who had already beaten Senya to a pulp, or the giant snake that magically appeared at Akan’s feet and then burst into flame when Senya waved his hand.
I wanted to go home. I wanted my own bed and the security of knowing my mom and dad were in the next room. In the dark of the night, during the height of the storm, I decided that this palace wasn't so cool after all and I clambered out of my bed and into the living room to find Taner snoring loudly on the sofa.
"Taner!" I pushed him. "Taner!" I tried to shake him.
"Wha? Huh?" He snorted and bolted upright. "Berk? What's going on?"
"I want my mama!" I burst into tears. "Where's my papa?"
"He went to his apartment," Taner said awkwardly patting me on the shoulder. "Is Senya okay?"
"I dunno."
"Is he still there?"
"I dunno."
"Come on," Taner stumbled to his feet. "Let's go check on him." We returned to the bedroom to find Senya sitting in a window box smoking a cigarette. Every time the lightning flashed his weird silver eyes would light up.
"Are you feeling better, kid?" Taner asked, sitting down next to him. "Can I get you anything besides another pack of my cigs?"
He shook his head.
"Are you going to make any more snakes, Senya?" I said. "Cuz snakes, especially big snakes really freak me out."
Taner made a choking noise. "Yeah, they freak me out too. Especially when they come out of thin air."
Senya pretended we weren’t there, or maybe he was pretending he wasn’t here.
"Can you stay in here with us tonight, Taner?" I asked as yet another bolt of lightning lit up the room.
"Sure." He took my hand and led me back to bed. "Come on, Senya," he called. "You need to get some sleep. You're going to start school in the morning. If your back is hurting, I can give you a pain pill. I just took one myself. I got a nasty cut on my neck and another on my face today. I should get a hazardous duty bonus."
"Conventional analgesics don't work for him," I yawned snuggling down in my pillow.
"What did you just say?"
"I dunno. Tell us a story, Taner, a detective story."
"Not tonight, Berk. I'm too tired. Come on, Senya. Go to bed. I'll lie here on the divan and shoot anyone who walks in the door. That way you won't have to make any more snakes and we'll all be happy."
"Yeah!" I giggled. "But what if it's a maid?"
"I'll shoot her too," Taner replied.
"Don't do that!" I cried as Senya walked over and climbed back into his bed. He lay down and faced the wall, away from us.
"Ok, I won't shoot the maid," Taner said sleepily.
"Just Prince Akan and Lord Phylyp.”
"I can't do that, Berk," Taner replied while at the same time, in my head, I felt Senya whispering.
"That's ok. Senya says he's going to kill Phylyp and a human girl is going to use his light sword to kill Akan."
"What did you say?" Taner mumbled. "Berk?"
At this point, I was too sleepy to answer. I closed my eyes. I hadn’t a clue what a Human was, but I liked the idea that a girl was going to take Akan out. That would serve him right.
During the night the storm had moved on, and now sunlight streamed into our room. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes trying to remember where I was and why. Senya was already in the window box again while Taner snored like a spaceplane on the divan.
I got up and went to stand by Senya looking out the window at the beach. There were lots of people out there pointing at our window, trying to snap pics with long range lenses. They saw me, and a bunch of them waved. I waved back. A cheer went up from the beach.
“This is cool!” I laughed and waved some more. Senya walked away. The people stop waving and cheering. “Hey, come back, Senya. They want to see you.”
Senya ignored me and headed to the kitchen.
"I'm hungry,” I realized leaving the window. “Let's get something to eat before we have to go to school. It's not fair we have to go to school even when it's summer. I didn't have to do that before."
Senya opened the fridge. I stood next to him and looked at all the bottles and containers inside. There was a fresh chocolate torte, so I decided that was my breakfast. Senya found a carton of eggs and ate them shell and all while he was standing there, just throwing them one after another in his mouth.
"That's gross," I said.
"That cake is gross," he replied, handing me a bottle of milk. We both drank it straight up, no glass or anything. I wiped my face with the back of my hand and belched loudly.
"Let's play a vid game or watch some toons before school," I suggested, heading across the room to the enormous screen. I turned it on, and it was a news show and all the people there were talking about Senya and showing a pic of him all dressed up like he was yesterday. "Look, you're on the vid!"
"So?" He lit a cigarette and sat down on the sofa, putting his feet up on the table. He had really ugly looking toe nails.
"Let’s watch you." I turned up the volume.
"He's absolutely gorgeous," a woman was saying. "Can you imagine what he'll look like all grown up?"
"He's absolutely gorgeous," I mimicked the woman. "I think I'm in love! Wait until she sees your feet." I broke into peals of laughter, inadvertently snorting milk out my nose.
"Fuck off, Berkie," Senya sighed and the vid changed channels.
It flipped through about thirty of them until it finally stopped flickering at an old toon I had seen about a million and a half times. I stared at it like I’d never seen it before though. It was a pretty good toon.
"Boys?" Taner came from the bedroom scratching his face. His hair was all messed up, and he looked like he was still half asleep.
"Good morning Taner," I called. "We already had breakfast."
"Yeah, ok," Taner mumbled. "Well go take a bath and get dressed for school. Shit, what am I, your nanny?"
"Senya doesn't like taking a bath, and we don't know what we are supposed to wear," I replied. Both of us were sitting there in boxer shorts from the day before.
"You know what, Senya?" Taner practically shouted. "I've had about two hours sleep and I'm sick and tired of Berkie speaking for you. You've got a mouth, say it yourself! Now both of you get up, wash up and put on whatever is in the closet. Shit!" He rubbed his temples and then his cheek where he had a long cut from when Akan’s whip hit him.
"Ok," I said. "I'm going swimming in the giant bathtub," and I raced into the bath where a tub as big as a small swimming pool with a fountain and everything spouted warm water from gold taps.
My dad called me out a short time later and gave me a suit to dress in. I guess living in the Palace meant I had to wear fancy clothes every day. I didn’t mind. I had a red bow tie and black onyx cufflinks, and I combed down my white blonde hair until it lay flat. I felt very dapper.
When I was dressed and ready, I joined my dad and Taner in the closet where they were sorting through Senya's clothes. Senya was in the window box again, still in his boxers and looking very unhappy. His back was still red and sore looking. You could see a long line where Akan had whacked him.
"You sure he needs to wear a sash with a tunic too?" Taner was asking, holding up a long piece of shiny gold silk.
"Yes," my dad said huffily, consulting a list. "Tunics and dress coats."
"Maybe we really should have a valet do this," Taner suggested.
"It's not difficult," my dad said. "You can do this. Hell, Berk can do this. Let's keep the number of servants who interact closely with him to a minimum. I just don't know who is loyal to Akan and who is not."
"Ok, Boss," Taner yawned. "So Berk, every day we need to make sure Senya has a sash, dress pants, shoes and socks, tunic only for school and dress coat for everything else."
"And make sure his hair is brushed and tied back. The consensus is that he can keep it long to please the Karuts if it is clean and tied back."
"The Karuts will be happy if Senya has long hair?" I asked. "What about his fingernails? And his toes?" I found this incredibly funny.
"Ok," Taner mumbled, rolling his eyes at me. "The consensus? Do they want him exclusively in boxers or are briefs ok?"
"These aren't my orders, Taner," my dad said. "This is straight from Lord Dickon who discusses everything with the king."
Taner frowned at me as my dad crossed the room to the window box with his arms full of Senya's clothes. Senya let my dad help him get dressed. His eyes flickered against the floor when my dad brushed out his hair and tied the ribbon in it.
"Much easier to run around in filthy rags, huh Senya?" Taner smirked.
"It is far easier to live on the street and be no one," Senya replied, glancing at Taner. My dad stopped brushing his hair.
"What did you say?" Taner narrowed his eyes.
"You spoke Noble Mishnese," my dad declared as if it was a miracle.
"With a weird accent," I added. "Say something else." I tried to mimic him but couldn’t get his lilt.
Senya looked at the floor again.
"Where did you learn Noble Mishnese?" my dad demanded. "When?"
Senya wouldn’t respond.
"Well at least he's not using Berkie's mouth," Taner said.
"I don't know Noble Mishnese," I replied in my normal voice.
"Well you are not allowed to speak it anyway," my dad said. "Only the Royal Family. Who taught you, Senya?"
Senya shook his head.
"Senya says if you are all going to make such a big deal of it every time he speaks, he's not going to say another word. And nobody taught him. And he doesn't like these scratchy clothes. And his shoes are too tight, and his socks are already ripped. And he doesn't like everybody else deciding how he should dress and what he should look like and if he's evil or not and all those people out on the beach are really bugging him and he just wants to leave and never come back."
"That's enough, Berkan."
I shut up.
"The complaint department is closed today," my father huffed. "Off to your lessons now, both of you."
"Come on guys," Taner said and led us out into the corridor, and into the sunshine. We headed across the buildings. "You'll get used to all this, Senya. You may even start to like it. Beats scrounging for food. And hey, someday, everything you see is going to be yours."
"I see nothing," Senya replied.
Eventually, Senya got used to palace life. I don’t think he ever really enjoyed it, certainly not as much as I did. We did work ourselves into a routine though, and we were kept busy enough between school, the ceremonies and audiences, the pressers and the appearances that even if he was unhappy, he had little time to dwell on it.
“Come on boys, come on!” Taner was always yelling at us as we ran down the hallways, late to this appointment or that.
By the time we got to wherever we were meant to be, Senya shoes were untied, his shirt tails untucked, his hair hanging in loose strands around his face and undoubtedly, a forbidden cigarette perched on his lip. Taner tucked him and tied him and snatched the cig away and then sent him off into the throne room or great hall to meet and greet princes and potentates and a never ending parade of eligible young ladies.
I was the first to discover that he could not see. I knew he would want me to focus on things and subconsciously urge me to look at this or that, but it never occurred to me as to why until one dark night in our room when I wanted to light the nightlight.
It was stormy outside, and the surf was pounding high against the shore. It was silly to be scared high in this Palace with Taner just outside the door, but Akan had threatened the both of us again today, popping into our schoolroom and promising we would never see our thirteenth birthdays. Naturally, I was frightened.
“Do you mind if the light is on, Senya?” I had asked, getting up to turn it on.
“No,” he scoffed. “Why should I care?”
“Just in case you want to sleep,” I offered.
He almost never slept. I would wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or get a sip of water, and he was either in bed with eyes wide open, silver light shining on the ceiling, or off in another room, sitting in the window box pressed to the glass like an animal trapped in a cage. In the beginning he would go wander the beach at night while Taner slept until Taner discovered this and confined him to the suite.
“Turn on whatever you want,” he said.
“The light doesn't bother you?”
“Berkie, light, dark, it's all the same to me.”
I turned on the light which spread a golden glow across the room. I was still scared.
“Ach, don't be scared, Berkie. Akan isn't going to hurt you.”
“How do you know?”
He stuck his head over the side of the bed, and his eyes flashed at me. His long hair hung upside down.
“I know everything," he said.
“You don't!”
“I do.”
“You can't even write your own name.”
We were tutored together by a team of teachers who specialized in Mishnese, science, mathematics and history. Senya mastered everything they intended for us each day within a matter of minutes. I think he literally sucked the information out of their brains. I struggled through their lectures and exercises while he smoked cigarettes and sat by the windows.
The one thing he couldn't do was write. He could form letters in a very childish way and scrawled them all across the page. He tried to write with his left hand, and I thought he did a better job of it then, but the teachers would snatch the pen away. Left-handedness was a sign of the Devil which didn't bode well when one was directly descended from Karukan the Infidel.
“Can't see the bleedin paper,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Can't see anything you idiot,” he cried and jumped down. “Come on.”
I followed him through Taner's room where he was very loudly snoring on his cot and into our study room. Senya took a piece of paper from his desk and a pen.
“Now look at the paper,” he ordered.
“I can't,” I cried. “It's pitch black in here. You need to turn on the lights.” How was I supposed to see anything with no lights on?
Senya waved his hand, and the lights in the room turned on. He picked up a pen with his left hand, and I looked at the blank paper. He proceeded to write out his name, Sehron de Kudisha. His hand writing wasn't great, but it was definitely better than in class and the letters were in a nice straight line.
“See,” he said proudl
y. “I can do it if you look at the paper for me.”
“But I can't go around looking at all your papers, Senya. I got my own papers to look at.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he sighed, "come on.” He jumped up again.
Like thieves, we snuck out of the suite and into the corridor. I think it was about two in the morning, and with the storm overhead, the Palace hallways and the massive courtyard were dark and empty. Wind and rain pummeled the courtyard and hid our footsteps. The air was warm as it was still late summer, so we weren't cold even though we were dressed only in pajamas.
“Where are we going?” I whispered.
“The tubes,” Senya whispered back, and I giggled nervously. I had no idea what the tubes were.
We walked across the entire length of the Palace to the far south end where all the servants’ quarters and the kitchens were. I was getting wet from the blowing rain, and frankly, I was tired being that it was the middle of the night. Nevertheless, I followed Senya down three stories of servant stair cases and out a back door.
“How do you know about these places?” I asked, but he just hissed at me to be quiet.
We crept along the massive south wall of the building, nearly back to the highway.
“Well if it ain't the Karut,” someone said in Street Mishnese.
The man was leaning against the side of the building next to a large hole from which water was pouring out. Above us were several other large holes and further down the building were at least three more. Water was cascading out of all of them. There were six or eight men sitting or leaning against the side of the building smoking or trying to sleep in the rain.
“Where ye been, Karut?” The man said and looked me over. He reached out his hand and touched my hair.” “Oos yer frien?”
“Leave 'im be,” Senya said. “Come on, Berk.”
I tried to follow, but another man came and grabbed me, wrapping his arm around my neck and pulling me against him.
“Oooo, yer nice and young,” he hissed and both those guys started laughing.
They both also smelled really bad. I got really scared and I think I even started to cry but then the guy holding me dropped his arm and started to scream. A knife was lodged right in his forearm and blood gushed out of the wound. I started to scream too and scampered behind Senya. Senya's silver eyes glowed, and he held out his hand. The knife flew into it.
"Fuck you, Karut," the second guy yelled and he jumped at Senya.
I closed my eyes expecting to be knocked over at any second, but then the second guy screamed even louder. He started gasping and making choking noises, and I could smell a lot of blood. I peeked my eyes open and screamed even more because Senya's knife was in the second guy's neck. The guy fell down on the ground and twisted there, spraying blood everywhere until he started choking up blood and then he just stopped, his eyes wide open.
"Ye killed 'im Karut!" the first guy yelled. Senya held out his hand, and his knife flew back into it again. He wiped it off on his pant leg.
“Ye killed me mate and sliced me arm, Karut,” the man wept clutching his arm as the blood continued to drip on to the wet sand.
Senya shrugged. “Come on,” he said to me and climbed into the tube.
I scrambled after him anxious to get away from the dead and bleeding guys. I really wanted to go back to our room or even better, back home. I had failed my primary responsibility which was to keep Senya from knifing anyone and on top of that he killed a guy!
“How could you do that, Senya?” I cried.
"Fuck it, Berkie!" Senya snapped at me, so I continued to crawl behind him all the way back as far as the tube extended with the warm water pushing us and splashing us in the face.
When we reached the vertical conduit which poured like a waterfall, Senya turned to me and grabbed my shirt pulling my face up to his.
“Listen to me. Sometimes, I’m gonna be doing things ye dun’t like nor understand. I dun’t need ye telling me what’s right nor wrong. Ye wanna ‘ang with me and pretend yer a prince, then ye keep yer mouth shut. Ye got that, Berkan?”
“Yes, Senya,” I nodded, water dousing my hair and face. I felt a little bit like I was drowning.
“Good,” he said and then he sat down and shoved off, sliding down the tube as if we were at a water park, his laughter echoing all the way down the bottom.
I followed, tumbling out of the tube and into the sand a moment later. The dead man and all the rest of the street people were gone.
“That was great,” I cried and again we climbed back in.
We slid in the tubes for hours until the storm had ended and the sunrise was making colorful lines across the sky and the Palace was on full alert for the missing boys.
Chapter 10
Taner